The Mets dropped Friday's game to the Phillies. The Mets dropped Sunday Game 1 to the Phillies. The lead is down to one. If the Phils win, its a sweep, demons of September's past start to get released, and the division is tied. A Mets win locks away the demons, gets the lead back to two, and prevents a sweep. So, like many had said, last night's game is the game why we got Santana. We got Santana to win when we need a win, to just about carry the team.
Things worked amazingly for the Mets. Santana got in trouble early, but the show of a true champion, he got it back together and pitched 7.1 innings and allowed only 2 runs. When he allowed one run in the first, the Mets bats did exactly what they needed. They stopped Philly from gaining momentum by putting up the quick 3 spot. The rest of the offense went to Mr. Delgado. Two huge homers. They gave the Mets some breathing room, especially his first one that followed a run by the Phillies. So the score was 3-2, and then he brought it right back to a two run lead. I love in his fourth AB, the fans were cheering MVP, MVP, as we should he is a legitamate candidate now, because in the start of the season we were booing (I am guilty of this myself as well back in April). I love when things change for the better.
With the pen, they gave up their first run in a while, but they really did a nice job again. Stokes needs to be getting more attention. Last year with the Rays (Devil Rays back then), his ERA was above 7.00. Now he has a cool 2.35 ERA. So congrats to him for a great season, for the parts that he has played. During the offseason, I'll do a more detailed look into Stokes, but I am very curious to see how he does next year. Also, congrats to Feliciano on his 20th hold of the season.
